THE 60-30-10 RULE
(September/October 2003 Issue)

Here is one simple rule that, if your clients follow it faithfully, they will in all likelihood improve their results in job hunting. It’s a hard rule to follow at first, but once they get the hang of it, they will not want to return to their old ways. The rule is this: of the hours that you devote to job hunting, make sure that 60% of these hours you are in face-to-face contact with people in the world of work. The key phrase is "face-to-face contact". This includes information interviews, job interviews, casual conversations, dropping off your resume in-person, talking with people on the bus about their jobs, and many more varieties but always, in-person.

The remaining 40% of the job hunting time can be allocated as follows: 30% for the technological telephone calls or contact by computer, and 10% for communication in writing. Percentages will vary in individual cases, but clients should be urged to do even more than 60% face-to-face.

Why is in-person contact so vital? Because people who hire trust what they see in front of them. They trust their ability to "eyeball" a person and pick up intuitive signals about the job candidate’s motivation, honesty, interpersonal ease, and ability to "fit in" with the rest of the office. Many of the signals they get are hard to define, but impossible to get via e-mail and difficult to get by phone.

Clients are far more likely to be remembered if they have had an in-person contact with an individual who has the power to hire or even the ability to recommend. That is why information interviews are so powerful. This is why social contacts will always be important for the job hunter. Person-to-person contact is also why companies are increasingly using internships as a method for choosing future full-time workers.

Why is it so hard for job hunters to devote 60% of their time to face-to-face contacts? (1) They are afraid, (2) They don’t know how to do it. Job hunters are afraid that, in brief face-to-face encounters, they "will say or do the wrong thing" and ruin their chances for future employment. They are afraid they will be perceived as intrusive by requesting face-to-face time. They are afraid people will find their qualifications inadequate.

Well, of course. They WILL say or do wrong things. They may be inadvertently interrupting someone’s workday. In many cases, their background will not be exactly what they are looking for. Soooooo what? So, they will make mistakes, but good things will happen too. Some people will like them, some will want to help them, some will invite them to meet the staff. And some will tell them they’re too busy. All in a day’s job hunting.

But, one thing they can be sure of. If job hunters do not initiate and request face-to-face contacts on a regular and persistent basis, they will have a very small number of people interested in hiring them.

With millions of copies of WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE? in circulation, you would think it would be unnecessary to urge face-to-face contact. However, most job hunters still "send in their stuff" and wait by the phone, the mailbox, or the computer. The Job Club concept had the right idea - insisting that clients stay on the phone until they arrange a number of in-person meetings.

When people are desperate for work, their fear of in-person contact is even worse. What’s a counselor to do? Transport them to information interviews in a wheelbarrow? Like any good social skill, face-to-face contact in the world of work is learned through gradual exposure, starting with easy contacts, moving on to tougher ones. Learning how to request informational interviews or internships, what to do when you’re there, and how to follow up: these skills can best be learned on a group basis. Working with other job hunters offers the mutual support that people need: "I’m not in this alone". Job hunters need groups to help them practice these skills.

As a counselor, you can ask the client to keep track of how they spend their time in job hunting. Sure enough, they will slip back into using the phone and the Web, in the hope that their resume will be so spiffy that an employer will send the company plane to pick them up this afternoon. They will thus not be fulfilling the 60% face-to-face part of your agreement. And they will wonder why the job market is so unyielding.

The 60-30-10 Rule is for shy people too, especially for shy people. In-person contact is a learned skill. Encourage your clients to start out doing information interviews in pairs. This support will help them to experience the benefits of face-to-face contact and ease their fears.

The only purpose of the telephone and e-mails are to get you in to see people. In the great calculus of the workplace, one face-to-face meeting, even if it may last only 10-15 minutes, can be worth 20 e-mails and twenty voice mails.

It’s a face-to-face world out there. People hire people they "know" because people they meet have greater credibility. When you hire, you do the same thing.

When a job hunter "humanizes" the process by getting in front of people instead of throwing pieces of paper or electronic messages at them, everybody is happier. No matter how technological the world of work may be, interviewers will always want to look job hunters in the eye and get to know them. Job hunters can be in that flow or outside of it. Don’t let them depend upon paper or electronic airplanes. Insist that they go for the sixty percent.

Howard Figler, Ph.D., is the author of The Complete Job Search Handbook and The Career Counsleor's Handbook. He can be reached at: hefigler@pacbell.net